As advanced voice, data, and video services evolve, homeowners are faced with the prospect that the existing wiring in their houses is not adequate to distribute the services throughout the house. Either the cabling system does not perform well enough, or there is no outlet where the service is to be used, or both. In either case, homeowners must retrofit new cables into their houses in order to take advantage of the new services. Aside from pulling cables through the walls, this type of cabling retrofit often involves installing new electrical boxes, outlets, and faceplates at all locations where outlets are desired.
Nearly all electrical boxes, outlets, and faceplates are designed and optimized for use in new construction. While there are some products that are specifically designed for retrofit (sometimes called "old work") application, these products are designed to replace only one of the three components (i.e., the electrical box, the outlet, or the faceplate). All three components are needed and must be assembled on site during installation. Examples of existing products for use in a retrofit installation include retrofit electrical boxes, which use standard outlets and faceplates, and a combination outlet and faceplate, which must be used with an electrical box.
Installations using products of this type generally involve the following steps: a hole is cut in the wall, a cable is pulled through the hole, the cable is terminated (i.e., a connector is installed on the end of the cable), the cable is passed through a retrofit electrical box, the electrical box is attached to the wall, the cable terminations are connected to the outlet, the outlet is installed into the electrical box, and the faceplate is installed onto the outlet. When this process has to be repeated for every outlet that is to be installed, it becomes a labor-intensive, time consuming, and expensive undertaking.